Public Chamber to initiate probe into MP Gudkov’s trip to US

March 11, 2013, 17:36 UTC+3During his trip to the U.S., Dmitry Gudkov was gathering information on the Russian children adopted by Americans

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MOSCOW, March 11 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s Public Chamber intends to ask the State Duma Ethics Commission to look into the circumstances of MP Dmitry Gudkov’s trip to the United States.

“I will prepare an inquiry to the Duma Ethics Commission and the Just Russian faction,” Public Chamber member Georgy Fyodorov told Itar-Tass on Monday, March 11.

He said he was planning to send the inquiry next week.

According to Fyodorov, he is interested to know “at whose expense” Gudkov travelled to the United States. “If he paid out of his own pocket, that’s one thing. If he did so at the expense of taxpayers, that’s something different,” he said.

He believes that if the MP travelled to the U.S. by plane in business class, the trip might have cost some 300,000 roubles.

Fyodorov was also angered by the fact that Gudkov had reportedly participated in a “Russophobic gathering’ and “complained about the expulsion of his father [Just Russian faction deputy head Gennady Gudkov was stripped of his parliamentary mandate in September 2012 for entrepreneurial activities, which runs contrary to his status of MP] from the State Duma, which is not ethical.”

“There is also information that Dmitry Gudkov begged money there [in the U.S.] for opposition activities. This is unethical and contrary to the law, and also undermines the authority of the government,” Fyodorov said.

During his trip to the U.S., Dmitry Gudkov was gathering information on the Russian children adopted by Americans. In interviews with mass media he also spoke of his meetings with American congressmen who he said had agreed to cooperate for fighting corruption in the Russian government.